What Can The Industry Do To Help Independent Instructors?

[DevonDiver]

As an organization, it doesn't represent that many independent instructors value the freedom to teach best as their experience and knowledge leads them. It's very standardized...and that's the antithesis of why many instructors turn independent in the first place.

Instructors rarely go independent unless they're strong enough to stand on their own two feet. There's normally some significant expertise and experience accrued before they make that leap. As independent instructors, they learn to compete based on quality. Few independent instructors can prosper based on a quantity approach to training.

So... in my mind... you've got a cadre of highly experienced, confident, quality-based instructors. The last thing they'd want was an association that stipulated and regulated every little thing they did. Respect expertise and passion - and trust in them to deliver to their utmost. Sort the wheat from the chaff at the outset, then empower those selected to define their own philosophies and approaches, within a given framework for certifications. Set minimum standards, but promote training to the maximum using the expertise available.

Accept that expertise is individual - and reflects in varying approaches. Support instructional quality by developing and sharing instructional expertise and methods, not through regulation and standardization of the diving taught.

 

[sheeper]

Most LDS' view independent instructors as the enemy. And most LDS' are poor business people. That is why so many are in trouble.

I sometimes do independent teaching. Several local LDS' make it hard for me for tank fills, rentals even boat trips. The SMART LDS gives me free fills, a great deal on rental gear and wholesale pricing on boat trips. Now guess which LDS i bring students to when they need to buy gear? Guess which LDS i encourage my students (now newly certified divers) to book dive trips with? You guessed it...the SMART LDS. I'm a valuable business partner for that SMART LDS instead of competition.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Their is such an organization, but they currently think tech sidemount is too complex/variable to standardize inside their overall diving concept.

Exactly. But that organization is expensive as hell. I don't hold it against them because diving instructors need to eat too. Secondly they make a lot of decisions for you (standardized gasses, gear preferences etc). If teaching freedom is what the instructor is after then these folks may be the exact opposite to what the instructor seeks.

 

[tbone1004]

actually, their organization is not all that expensive when you consider what you are getting. Their courses follow roughly the same cost structure as all technical instructors at roughly $400/day for a pair of divers. It is expensive compared to the recreational market, but only because you get a lot more days of instruction from generally speaking, significantly higher quality instructors.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

actually, their organization is not all that expensive when you consider what you are getting. Their courses follow roughly the same cost structure as all technical instructors at roughly $400/day for a pair of divers. It is expensive compared to the recreational market, but only because you get a lot more days of instruction from generally speaking, significantly higher quality instructors.

Cave 1 course alone is over 2000. When we factor in the cost of Fundies, pre-requisite to anything else then the over all cost of training up to Cave 1 would be 3000 USD. Normally from what I have seen Cavern, Intro to Cave, Apprentice and Full Cave each cost 400 so you reach full cave certification in half the money that they take you up to only Cave 1.

Could it be that the number of dives needed to do Cave 1 are higher than the combined total of the four courses?

 

[tbone1004]

Each of the four "normal" cave courses are 2 days a piece, with a buddy, that is $400/day, which is the cost of Fundies. GUE Cave courses I think are closer to $600/day, but getting to GUE cave courses is quite difficult and expensive for the instructors compared to other agencies. My point was the instructors aren't making much more $/day than normal instructors, but the days required to get to equivalent GUE technical levels are certainly more than the rest of the agencies.

 

[KevinNM]

The people I have run into taking the GUE cave 2 course in High Springs were from Europe. The cost of the class doesn't come close to the cost of getting ready to take the class and showing up for it.

 

[cerich]

great thread

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't know how this thread morphed into comparing the prices of cave diving, but....

According to this price page, the total cost of cavern, basic, apprentice, and cave from a highly experienced instructor is $,1550. If you take the outside estimate of the amount of time it will take, you will need 13 days to complete the course. That comes to about $120 per day.

That cost is less per day than the cost of two tank recreational diving in Hawai'i.

 

[Chris Gates]

After Divemasters, the second group in the entire scuba industry that I feel the most sympathy for is the free-lance scuba instructor who teaches independently of shops. I am not talking about the “visiting” instructor who teaches at a shop for his cut but the totally independent instructor who is on his own. Some of the best instructors I had were in this category and what made them the best was the freedom to dictate their own pace and encourage their own gear preferences without enforced schedules and sales pressure etc.

I have also had some very good instructors who were shop affiliated but overall teaching process was cookie cutter one. Example:

When I was doing my drysuit course I was in a BCD because that is what the shop had in its rental inventory. My drysuit instructor told me that this is not the best for drysuit and I should actually be diving in a back-plate and wing. She also told me not to mention this to the LDS owner because they do not sell BP-wings and she did not want to look like she was advertising things outside of what the shop sold. So, I finished the course in a jacket BCD which my instructor and I both felt was not the most optimum set up. I ended up purchasing the wing over internet because the LDS believed it was “Technical diving” gear. This is an example of a great instructor crippled by shop enforced rules.

I was wondering what can the industry do to assist free-lance scuba instructors who break away from shops? So far the trend is to discourage or punish instructors breaking away from a shop. Many certification agencies (SSI and SDI) state that in order to become an instructor you have to be affiliated with a shop which should have compressor and carry at least three major brands. Most basement instructors cant do that.

There are a few independent instructors in my area but the LDS would not even rent them four tanks to train their class. The LDS sees them as competition and will restrict them in anyway it can. Agencies do not want them to exist and insurance is high as well plus they have to invest in a small rental inventory (possibly a compressor) to be in business.

I was wondering what can we do to help this guy. LDS is in trouble anyway due to internet sale. The only thing in the entire LDS that internet can not deliver is this guy. In order to save him, do we really need to save the LDS? A few rescue ideas come to mind and I would like to hear comments on the benefit and feasibility of each:

Manufacturers like Hog, Dive Rite could adopt instructors in different areas in order to liberate them from the (middleman) shop. That way that instructor will also be the sales person / distributor for that brand. A part of me says this is the problem we are trying to run away from in the first place as we are trying to create a teaching environment free of market pressures. Yet becoming a slave to the manufacturer may actually be could be more liberating for the instructor than becoming a slave to the middle-man. If instructor can create future customers in the area without being affiliated with the shop then the brand should back him up.

An association of free-lance instructors which will collectively purchase teaching gear for all member instructors at a discounted price. It can also help with other things like setting up local support chapters that offer airfills / compressor services and assist in advertising and promotions.

In the end, LDS is already in trouble. If internet sales could meet free-lance instructor outside somewhere in a back alley or in someone’s basement then we may have a business model that is more sustainable than the strictly structured “shop.”

There are agencies that have achieved something similar to the above. GUE and UTD support freelance instructors and have been able to establish graduating standards that are higher than the agencies that sponsor “resorts” in the Caribbean. They also sell gear (GUE promotes Halcyon and UTD has its own brand). I am unsure what kind of benefit this will have for the instructor who is teaches through them. Do UTD instructors get UTD branded inventory at a reduced rate? Don’t know.

I am just thinking loud so any ideas, thoughts, suggestions welcome.

After Divemasters, the second group in the entire scuba industry that I feel the most sympathy for is the free-lance scuba instructor who teaches independently of shops. I am not talking about the “visiting” instructor who teaches at a shop for his cut but the totally independent instructor who is on his own. Some of the best instructors I had were in this category and what made them the best was the freedom to dictate their own pace and encourage their own gear preferences without enforced schedules and sales pressure etc.

I have also had some very good instructors who were shop affiliated but overall teaching process was cookie cutter one. Example:

When I was doing my drysuit course I was in a BCD because that is what the shop had in its rental inventory. My drysuit instructor told me that this is not the best for drysuit and I should actually be diving in a back-plate and wing. She also told me not to mention this to the LDS owner because they do not sell BP-wings and she did not want to look like she was advertising things outside of what the shop sold. So, I finished the course in a jacket BCD which my instructor and I both felt was not the most optimum set up. I ended up purchasing the wing over internet because the LDS believed it was “Technical diving” gear. This is an example of a great instructor crippled by shop enforced rules.

I was wondering what can the industry do to assist free-lance scuba instructors who break away from shops? So far the trend is to discourage or punish instructors breaking away from a shop. Many certification agencies (SSI and SDI) state that in order to become an instructor you have to be affiliated with a shop which should have compressor and carry at least three major brands. Most basement instructors cant do that.

There are a few independent instructors in my area but the LDS would not even rent them four tanks to train their class. The LDS sees them as competition and will restrict them in anyway it can. Agencies do not want them to exist and insurance is high as well plus they have to invest in a small rental inventory (possibly a compressor) to be in business.

I was wondering what can we do to help this guy. LDS is in trouble anyway due to internet sale. The only thing in the entire LDS that internet can not deliver is this guy. In order to save him, do we really need to save the LDS? A few rescue ideas come to mind and I would like to hear comments on the benefit and feasibility of each:

Manufacturers like Hog, Dive Rite could adopt instructors in different areas in order to liberate them from the (middleman) shop. That way that instructor will also be the sales person / distributor for that brand. A part of me says this is the problem we are trying to run away from in the first place as we are trying to create a teaching environment free of market pressures. Yet becoming a slave to the manufacturer may actually be could be more liberating for the instructor than becoming a slave to the middle-man. If instructor can create future customers in the area without being affiliated with the shop then the brand should back him up.

An association of free-lance instructors which will collectively purchase teaching gear for all member instructors at a discounted price. It can also help with other things like setting up local support chapters that offer airfills / compressor services and assist in advertising and promotions.

In the end, LDS is already in trouble. If internet sales could meet free-lance instructor outside somewhere in a back alley or in someone’s basement then we may have a business model that is more sustainable than the strictly structured “shop.”

There are agencies that have achieved something similar to the above. GUE and UTD support freelance instructors and have been able to establish graduating standards that are higher than the agencies that sponsor “resorts” in the Caribbean. They also sell gear (GUE promotes Halcyon and UTD has its own brand). I am unsure what kind of benefit this will have for the instructor who is teaches through them. Do UTD instructors get UTD branded inventory at a reduced rate? Don’t know.

I am just thinking loud so any ideas, thoughts, suggestions welcome.